By Gram Slathry
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump has been power five days, however he has already imposed his will on Washington quickly and unforgiving, which shows that even his most extreme electoral promises were not just a threat.
The Republican President took the first steps towards fulfilling his pledge to reshape the federal bureaucracy, which he believed was hostile to him during his presidency 2017-2021, where he reset or dismissed hundreds of civil service employees in simultaneous moves against a group of agencies.
He rushed to push the army to the southern border, the head of the US Coast Guard dismissed, and challenged contracts of the constitutional law with a series of widespread executive orders – 26 of which were issued within hours of assuming his position – which cover everything starting with environmental regulations. For American citizenship rules.
Perhaps the most daring step ever, he excused about 1500 of his supporters who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the American Capitol building, the global symbol of American democracy.
Trump’s allies compared his shocking and horror conquest of the special forces’ raid, which surprised federal workers, unions, advocacy groups and even the media within its scope.
They are credited with the careful work that lasted for years for conservative allies who spent a lot of Trump’s time outside his post in drafting detailed political plans that would allow him to start work.
“This is the main team that is responsible for the federal government,” Steve Bannon, who held the position of chief strategy in the White House during the first period of Trump and close to many Trump political advisers, told Reuters.
Trump opponents say it distorts the American constitution and expands the borders of the executive authority to beyond the intended limit. They also say that Trump’s opening moves show that he is less interested in unifying the country from his interest in radically changing it – and in many cases of revenge.
In one of his opening steps, Trump removed security permits for dozens of former intelligence officials who attributed unpleasant media reports on Hunter, son of former President Joe Biden, to a Russian influence.
Trump also stripped three former national security officials from their security details, even in the face of reliable threats from Iran. His assistant found the time to remove the image of one of his most severe critics, General Mark Millie, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from one of the Pentagon corridors.
The White House National Security Council cleared professional officials whom the Trump team considered not adequately loyal to the president. This step allows him to import loyalists in more than 100 positions in the field of national security.
“It is clear that he is not the man who gets rid of his grudges easily.”
The White House did not respond to the request to comment on this story.
Years in manufacturing
Even Trump’s enemies say that the past five days are an amazing contradiction with his first term, when internal and poorly prepared fighting led to thwarting many of his most ambitious political initiatives.
“With regard to the scope of all this and the speed, his team showed the results of the exceptional preparation,” said Timothy Naftali, Presidential historian and former director of the Nixon Presidential Library.
Many Trump’s policies are compatible with those calling for the “2025 Project”, a federation of conservative organizations that have spent more than two years in drafting policies in anticipation of Trump’s potential return.
Trump distanced himself from the project last year, saying he knows nothing about him, although many of his former aides were very involved in it. But its impact on its new process in the White House is very clear.
The 2025 project called for the purification of professional officials of the National Security Council.
There is another policy that Trump already adopted and is to facilitate the separation of hundreds of thousands of civil service employees by creating a new class of federal employees known as “Table F”.
Trump also put forward a comprehensive reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would transfer many Federal Emergency Management Agency functions to the states, another proposal for the 2025 project.
“There was a strict policy and political people who believe in Trump … and they started working immediately in 2021 for Trump’s return to the White House,” Bannon said. “And this is what you see is fruit.”
High strength?
Trump’s agenda faces obstacles in the future. Some supporters admit that the first weeks of his administration may represent the peak of Trump’s strength.
Many Trump’s executive orders are testing the limits of constitutional law. Which requires an end to the right to citizenship with birth – which is the constitutional principle that states that almost every person born in the United States becomes an automatic citizen – may be authorized by a federal court already.
Many other pledges and orders immediately faced lawsuits from states and advocacy organizations, and shock and terror may be drowned in his first week in litigation, which will continue throughout most of his term.
Trump may face a challenge in preserving the narrow majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives in the House of Representatives within two years. The current president’s party often loses its seats in the midterm elections. And if that happens, it will completely close the narrow legislative track in front of Trump.
“Trump has a decisive authorization of American voters to make radical reforms in Washington,” said Mike Davis, a close adviser to Trump for Judicial Affairs.
“This political mandate will fade if it does not achieve it – and it will quickly accomplish it.”
